pfSense is a FreeBSD-based network appliance platform. Common use cases for pfSense appliances are as a firewall, VPN, content filter, router and proxy appliance. The pfSense team sells an extensive list of hardware, but as an open source project, many STH readers build their own systems. At STH, we have experience both with pfSense branded appliances and building our own. We are taking this knowledge and applying it to some hardware buyer’s guides for pfSense that we will update regularly.
We do urge you to check out the pfSense branded hardware as they do design custom solutions for pfSense.
Top pfSense Network Card (NIC) Picks
We have a list of our Top Picks pfSense Network Cards NICs. Networking performance is extremely important to overall performance. pfSense appliances sit directly in the data path for users so having a fast and reliable solution is important.
Top pfSense Hardware Picks
Although network cards are the most important item in pfSense component choices, we have other guides to help you round out your builds:
- Top pfSense Motherboards – Coming Soon
- Top pfSense Barebones (Home/ Small Office) – Coming Soon
- Top pfSense Barebones (Data Center)
- Top pfSense Boot Devices
We also have a guide to turning a Project TinyMiniMicro node into a pfSense appliance. See Guide to Turning a Project TinyMiniMicro Node into a pfSense Firewall.
Last updated 2020/11/23